Traditionally, inorganic materials have dominated the semiconductor industry. For example, silicon arsenide and gallium arsenide have been used as semiconductor materials, silicon dioxide has been used as an insulator material, and metals such as aluminum and copper have been used as electrode materials. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing research effort aimed at using organic materials rather than the traditional inorganic materials in semiconductor devices. Among other benefits, the use of organic materials may enable lower cost manufacturing of electronic devices, may enable large area applications, and may enable the use of flexible circuit supports for display backplanes or integrated circuits.
A variety of organic semiconductor materials have been considered, the most common being fused aromatic ring compounds as exemplified by tetracene and pentacene, bis(acenyl)acetylene, and acene-thiophenes; oligomeric materials containing thiophene or fluorene units; and polymeric materials such as regioregular poly(3-alkylthiophene). At least some of these organic semiconductor materials have performance characteristics such as charge-carrier mobility, on/off current ratios, and sub-threshold voltages that are comparable or superior to those of amorphous silicon-based devices.
Some organic semiconductor materials such as, for example, pentacene have a plurality of possible crystalline phases that can be formed. The electronic properties of organic semiconductor devices can vary depending on the crystalline phase or phases that are present. It has been recognized in the art that an organic semiconductor material that predominately forms one crystalline phase may decrease the variability encountered during the manufacture of organic semiconductor devices.